3-5-09

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Tech Council Minutes on March 5, 2009
Tech Plan Reading
  • EASTCONN is not doing a quality review, but will make notes/annotations.
  • Technology Plans are being checked for completeness to make sure all objectives are addressed.
  • Districts need to send 2 hard copies to EASTCONN for review. The state is expecting 1 hard copy and an electronic copy on CD in June.
  • If you need longer than March 9th, let Jane know. Jane is hoping all plans will be in by March 31st so there will be enough time to read them and get them back to you.

State Department of Education News
  • Art is retiring as of March 31st. We are hopeful that Karen will take on his responsibilities, such as the E2T2 and Tech Plan, but she already has a full-time job.
  • Everyone at SDE is unsure of their job security.
  • The deficit mitigation bill (passed unanimously by both houses) killed the Online Writing grant funding.
  • Karen is hopeful that some funding may be available through other sources.

SRBI Assessment Options
  • EASTCONN is exploring solutions that can assist districts with SRBI data analysis such as a FileMaker database based on CMT reporter and web-based applications using php.
  • STAR from Renaissance Learning is a solution Woodstock has selected. The benefit is that students can take assessments on the web.
  • Ames web and Dibbles are popular but they require a lot of teacher time for testing and input.
  • Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA) is been a choice for some Connecticut districts (although none from our EASTCONN area).
  • Study Island (multiple choice content exams) is available and has a reader for young children. Kids like it and it’s affordable. Study Island has added Science recently, but has no writing modules. Donna M. gave us a demo. The company representative is very accommodating. Steve S. pointed out how the data can be automatically emailed to the teachers. At Mansfield, some grade levels use it more than others and some are using just for remedial students.
  • Blue Ribbon Testing online has not been as well received according to comments from Donna M. and Marian L.
  • Easy CBM is another option for assessments.

2007 ISTE NETS: Tech Integration into Curriculum
  • New Hampshire has aligned their curriculum to the ISTE NETS. State law was passed to integrate technology into all content areas.
    Suggestion is to go with the new ISTE NETS.

Websites for Students
  • The website for food donation of free rice is: http://www.freerice.com/. Several subject areas are available. (Jane)
  • All about Explorers (http://allaboutexplorers.com/) is a great site for finding errors on a website (grade 5 level). (Marji)
  • Activity for rating websites’ reliability and validity at http://www.cybersmartcurriculum.org/, then go to Student Links on the lower left.
  • Put real-world media under the microscope with these media tutorials – Analyzing a World Wide Web Page: http://eolit.hrw.com/hlla/newmainlinks/media.jsp (Donna)
  • Social Bookmarking sites and favorites:
  • Delicious: ferlazzo (web site of the day), coolcatteacher (Vicky Davis), mrsming, stevesoko, jcookgough, pskellyeastconn
  • Diigo: Another good social bookmarking service that Kathy Schrock uses; Steve likes that you can annotate the link and send it to your blog.
  • Riptidefirst from Twitter

Mansfield’s Internet Safety Presentation

Discovery Education

Next Meeting, May 7 at the Willimantic Brew Pub